Their names are Syriana Albritton, Hlee and Nou Lao, and Mimi Xiong, but you can call them the ‘Golden Girls’ after the seniors helped the Bartlett Golden Bears’ tennis team serve up a historic win last weekend.

Experienced in the agony of a program that traditionally finishes near the bottom of the Cook Inlet Conference, the four core veterans wiped away years of frustration last week after helping Bartlett knock off perennial power Dimond for only the second time in 50 years.

Friday’s 5-4 triumph was made possible after victories by the ‘Golden Girls’ with help from Ellie Burke and Jer Lao in addition to a boys singles win that came down to a tiebreaker in a you-can’t-get-any-closer type finish.

“It was really special to beat Dimond,” said Bartlett coach Allen Clendaniel. “It meant a lot to the team to compete against a traditional CIC tennis powerhouse.”

The next day, Bartlett captured the Roys Cup for a second straight year after beating East 6-3 Saturday in the annual matchup between the two east side schools. The traveling trophy is named after Shawn and Ryan Roys. Shawn was a standout doubles player for Bartlett and Ryan was a CIC champion for East.

Since the sport started in Anchorage in 1974, Dimond and West have been the gold standard for CIC tennis. Meanwhile, Bartlett has struggled to field a team, let alone be competitive. In most matches, the Golden Bears are served up as fresh meat for the other schools to feast on. It’s been that way for years.

Bartlett has had good individual players over that time, but the lack of depth always prevented the Golden Bears from being competitive as a team against schools with 30-50 kids.

When Clendaniel became the Bartlett coach in 2014, there was one player on the team. Three years later that number swelled to 28, but it fluctuated from year to year, making it tough to develop momentum.

This year’s team has 15 players – one above the minimum for a varsity lineup. It’s common for the Golden Bears to default mixed doubles at dual meets and they were down 1-0 to Dimond before the first serve.

“Recruiting at Bartlett is very difficult,” Clendaniel said. “Most of the student body isn’t exposed to tennis before showing up at high school. This makes it difficult to convince players to try out for tennis.”

That’s what makes veterans like the ‘Golden Girls’ so valuable because they have been with the program for each of the last three years. The have provided pop and stability to a Bartlett lineup that’s been a revolving door over the years.

Most of the kids who come out for Bartlett tennis are total beginners and instead of being able to ease into competition at a JV level, they are thrown to the wolves on varsity because the team needs players to fill spots in the lineup.

“That’s a recipe for some 6-0, 6-0 beatdowns,” Clendaniel said. “But the players handle it well and keep working. In the 10 years I’ve coached, I’ve had five players who had played tennis before coming out; three were exchange students and two had played tennis before moving to Alaska.”

It was an exchange student from Egypt who helped Bartlett beat Dimond after David Bestaorous won 7-6, 7-6 over Jared Mateaki in boys singles in the decisive match. Down 4-1 in the second tiebreaker, Bestaorous won six of the final seven points to clinch the team’s first victory over Dimond since 2006.

Bestaorous bolsters the Bartlett boys, but the strength of the team is the ‘Golden Girls.’

Albritton and Xiong played doubles last year and placed second at the CIC Championships, but this year Albritton has switched to singles.

Albritton is the only club kid on the team, meaning she is a member of The Alaska Club, a privilege that allows her access to indoor courts. Traditionally, the city’s best players are club kids.

“She goes out of her way to schedule matches with adult players to get more practice,” Clendaniel said. “That’s really cool to see from a high school senior. She loves tennis.”

So do the Clendaniels, a husband-wife coaching combo. Allen and Zareena are both 1996 West High graduates who were teammates on the tennis team and went on to play competitively in town as young adults. Three years ago, Zareena joined Allen on the coaching staff out of desperation after he couldn’t find an assistant coach.

“Then one week into the season, blood clots went from my calf to my lungs. I almost died and was hospitalized for a week,” Allen said. “I was home bound on oxygen for most of the season.”

Bartlett officials considered canceling the season, but Zareena stepped up and filled in to keep the season going before Allen returned a month later. She has stayed by her husband’s side ever since.

“It’s been very special,” Allen said. “Tennis is a big part of our lives and has given us so much. Giving back to the next generation of players from a Title I school is very meaningful to us. It means a lot to see a young person fall in love with tennis like we did at that age.”